Working on Christmas

The tree is up and decorated, will post pictures when the room is done.  This is the only time of the year we use the living room so it's its time to shine, but so far we haven't found the Christmas stockings to hang on the fireplace.  But all the Christmas critters are out and about.
Making chili for lunch today because it has finally turned cold--YEAH!, it's been in the 70's all week, just too darn warm for this time of year.  But it will probably warm back up for Christmas, it always does.
A little more decorating today and then I've got to do so wrapping, my closet is clogged with boxes and I can hardy walk there, so I must get to work.
Thought I'd show a couple of photos of the Christmas Market at Union Square, small, but it smelled to good.

And one of the fantastic places we found while wandering the streets was Eataly a fabulous Italian food center owned by Mario Batali and others.  It's 50, 000 feet of Italian goodness.  Mario (one of our favorite chefs describes it as a grocery store with tasting rooms.  It was incredible and I could have eaten in every restaurant.  We bought a cheese ( which turned out to not be very good),  a salami (which was wonderful) and some good crusty bread.

The Kindness of Strangers and Christmas Markets

Who says people in New York City are cold.  Not true.  When unpacking after our arrival Mac discovered he'd left the charger for his MP3 player at home.  He needs White Noise to help him sleep at night and has to charge the player each day.  So I quickly Googled where we could get a charger, Best Buy was the closest and we headed downstairs.  Got directions from the doorman, left and left again, and we were quickly on our way.  Entering the store I saw an employee (Quentin), explained our problem and asked for help, he asked to see the MP3 player and quickly showed us what they had in the way of chargers and pointed out the cheapest one ($20.00) and we headed to the cash register, but he caught up to us, handed us a charger and said it'd just been laying in a drawer and would have soon been thrown out, so Merry Christmas, no charge. How nice was that!
The next night as we headed back to our hotel when we/I decided that  we/I needed something sweet to eat, so seeing Dunkn' Donuts we went in and I asked for 2 plain cake donuts.  The clerk said no, you need 4 and gave us 4 for the price of 2.  It was nearing closing time so again we got something that would have been thrown out, for free.  And they were delicious.
Everywhere we went I unashamedly asked strangers for directions, guess I could have looked them up on my phone, but how much fun is that. Everyone was helpful and the security guard who said Mac was right about the direction we should be going laughingly warned him not to be too smug about it.
The day before we left I couldn't connect to the WiFi in our room and so I asked the desk clerk for help (Jasmine).  She not only confirmed our airline reservations she printed our boarding passes.  Turns out she wasn't a native New Yorker, but was from Stuttgart, Germany, a city we had lived in and that her father was from Izmir, Turkey, also a city we'd lived in.  Had a great conversation with her.
So don't believe the bad things you hear about New Yorkers, they were great to us.

Now Christmas Markets, we went to 2, a smaller one down at Union Square near the wonderful Strand Book Store and a larger one at Bryant Park (if you watch Project Runway I know you've heard of Bryant Park, I kept looking for Tim ).  We had breakfast there one morning and went back at night to see it all lit up.  Lots of heavenly smells and some very different gift ideas.

We had waffles and coffee for breakfast, can you believe it was warm enough to eat outside?

The Badger thought the waffles were mighty tasty

There was a large skating rink at Bryant Park

And a Christmas tree that they lit up on Friday night

Loads of beautiful street decorations

A Merry-Go-Round at Bryant Park, loved the frog, watched a little girl ride it and she was just in heaven.

Can you tell we had a wonderful time?  Can't wait to go back again.

Back Home

We're home from NYC, worn to a frazzle with worn out feet.  Great trip, NYC looked like every Christmas movie you've ever seen, minus the snow.  The weather was delightful, well up in the 50's.  We walked everywhere, which explains why our feet are so sore.  We're use to walking, but concrete city sidewalks are so unforgiving.
Everywhere just looked like Christmas.  The store windows were wonderful, particularly Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord and Taylors.
These are from Saks where the theme was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

This is from Lord and Taylor, not sure what the theme was.

This is the tree and skating rink at Rockefeller Center, couldn't get near it the night it was first lit, police barricades everywhere and there must have been a 100,000 people out about near it.  Saw it the next night though.

The say the tree has 50,000 lights.

It was all just so beautiful.  And then we went to the best book store I've ever seen, The Strand.  It covers nearly a block with racks of used books outside for a dollar and 3 stories of every imaginable type of book.  I did some serious Christmas shopping there.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about the Christmas Markets and the kindness of strangers.

Slowly, But Surely

I'm getting things ready for Christmas.  Today I addressed and stamped cards, they'll go out next week.  Tomorrow I'll wrap everything that needs to be mailed.  Almost through shopping, looking for stocking stuffers.  Buying for Mac is the hardest, I search and search to find things that will tickle his fancy.
Took the carcass from  the game hens and made it into chicken and rice soup this morning, it made the whole house smell good.  I'm getting to really like homemade soups, so less full of sodium than the canned ones.
Today is Cyber Monday, but I haven't bought anything.  I shop online all the time, I don't need a special day to make Jeff Bezos richer ($100.5).  And to the people sending me catalogues, you're wasting your time and money.  I'm sorry to say that they go directly to the trash.
Suitcases await me, have to get to them tomorrow.  Colder in NYC than here so much warmer clothes.  Want to see the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Square lit up and the Christmas Market in Union Square, not to mention the Gangster Tour we're doing one night.
Hope you're off to a good start this week.

Mighty Tasty

As good as the Cornish Game Hens were on Thanksgiving I think today's meal was even better.  We had braised lamb shanks with a brown gravy served over mashed potatoes.  It was delicious, could have swam in that sauce.
Another beautiful day here in the swamp, near 70º and a bright blue sky.  Perfect autumn weather.  Did our walk first thing this morning  and watched the leaves finally starting to fall.
Lots of football, yeah Atlanta, good game.  And it looks like Oakland might beat Denver, double yeah, hate Denver, love to watch them lose.
Need to start getting organized for Christmas, I have my cards, but not one addressed yet.  All my gifts to be mailed are here and need to be wrapped.  We have a short trip to New York City coming up and I'll really have to get going on things when we get back.
Hope you too had a great weekend.

Saturday in the Swamp

Cold night in the 30's, beautiful day near 70º.  Putting Fall/Thanksgiving decorations up, getting  ready for Christmas.  Got our first Christmas card yesterday from Mac's elegant cousin Isabel.  In her 80's and still travels the world, has visited far more places than we have.
Made bread this morning and then a pot of bean and bacon soup, that's to go with the Leek Frittata I'm making for lunch.
We're still eating on the Cornish Hens I cooked for Thanksgiving, can't believe how much meat was on them.  Tomorrow I'm going to make them into chicken and rice soup.
Watched Guardians of The Galaxy 2 last night and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Love little Groot.
Reading a semi-nonfiction book called Rocket Boys by Homer Hickman.  It's the first in a trilogy about his life growing up in Coalwood, West Virginia the son of a coal mine and how he developed an interest in rockets.  That was to eventually lead him to NASA.  He says in the preface that it's mostly true, including the names, but some characters have been consolidated and events a bit out of sequence, so it's mostly nonfiction with a little fiction thrown in.  It was made into a movie in the 90's called October Sky which is an anagram of Rocket Boys.  I'm quite enjoying it, amazing what you can accomplish if you try hard enough.
I'm also reading A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, winner of the 2011 Pullitzer Prize.  It's 13 interlocking stories.  I like it, but I don't love it.  Hasn't made me want to go looking for more books by the author.
Also reading a science fantasy book,   Oath Bringer by Brandon Sanderson.  This is the 3rd in a planned 10 part book series.  Don't know if I'll live long enough to finish it, probably have to write the author a begin letter to let me know how it ends.
That's my Saturday, hope you're having a good one.

Happy Thanksgiving

No turkey was stuffed, but nevertheless we are.  After searching for recipes I cooked Cornish hens for Thanksgiving.  Hadn't fixed them in forever and never had much luck when I did cook them.  They usually turned out dry.
But the recipe was good and these turned out so delicious.  So was the pumpkin pie I bought at the store, so we're well stuffed.
Wishing a Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it and a good weekend ahead to those who don't.

Home Made Pumpkin Pie

Or at least that was the idea.  When the commissary had no pumpkin pies, fresh or frozen, we picked up a can of pumpkin for me to make a pie.  Well today was the day for baking, but it didn't happen.  I got the can of pumpkin out, saw that it called for 2 cans of condensed milk and went rummaging through the cupboard.  I found 1 can of fat free condensed milk, not good and then I noticed the best if used by date:  July of 2016.  Uh-oh, again not good.  It began to look as if a run to the grocery store was in order.  I asked Mac if a cake would do instead and he agreed, but really, cake is just not Thanksgivingy.  So we decided to go to the store.  I went to look at the frozen pie crust before we took off and it was so old, freezer burned and all the edges broken off.   So new crust was in order too.
On the way to the store Mac asked me if it wouldn't cheaper and easier to just buy a pie,  well I thought I'd check that out.  Turns out Eagle Brand Condensed Milk (which I prefer)  is $1.99 a can and a 2 pack of Pillsbury Pie Crust is $1.97 or about $1.00 a piece.  So that's about $5.00 to make my pie.  Fresh baked pumpkin pies were $2.50.  I bought a pie.
My heart was in the right place, just not my ingredients.  I'll bake a pie at Christmas.

Taken from Publix's Webstite

I'm So Pleased

Last week sometime Sharon from At Rivercrest Cottage posted about going to Vintage Market Days in McKinney, Texas.  And in particular she showed a painting on wood of a rabbit.

  This is the painting.  She said the lady who sold them wasn't there and she was a bit disappointed.  Well I fell in love with the painting and asked Mac to paint one for me.  He hates copying other people's work, but agreed to paint it for me.  Today he finished and I'm in love with it.  Here he  is.

Sunday Afternoon Grumble As Opposed to a Crumble

Time to do an old lady vent.  We went to the commissary today and though it looks really good after its remodel I'm having trouble with it.  Things have really been rearranged.  Some of the rearranging makes sense and some makes no sense at all.  So shopping took way longer than it should have as Mac and I both searched for things.
Some things just weren't there:  no ground pork, no lamb of any kind, no UHT milk (I don't drink it, I use it for baking)---lots of soy milk, coconut milk, almond milk, but no UHT, none of my coffee,  Dunkin Donut Dark, no red leaf lettuce, no calcium, lots of broken eggs ---Mac had to search a lot of boxes to find enough whole ones-- and no pumpkin pies.  So I'll be making my own, probably should have anyway, that way I'll know exactly what's in it.
Then my watch died, I buy cheap ones so they never last very long.  I only wear one when we're out and about, at home I don't care what time it is.
And to top things off I had an old lady moment.  When I change pants or jeans I like to pull them over my shoes.  Hate to take my shoes off because I have to double knot the ties because they're too long.  Anyway, I couldn't get my jeans off and had to call for Mac who basically laughed at me, told me take my shoes off, but them pulled them off of me.  I need to look for some  walking shoes with good support ( I wear Easy Spirit) that have velcro closing instead of ties, then it'd be easy to change clothes.
Well enough grumbling, it's a beautiful day and I need to go and fix lunch.

Some of This, Some of That

We were out running around yesterday and the traffic was terrible.  Reminded us of why we don't go out much.  We were in search of the Hobby Lobby in a town up the line and finally found it.  It was huge and deserving of another trip, but in a quieter location.
We had thought that we'd have lunch at the Panda Express near it,  but after reading reviews on YELP (does anyone else read these?) we decided not too, there were some really bad reviews.  But still in the mood for Chinese food we stopped by a local restaurant and got take out.  Mac got Sweet and Sour Pork with Chicken Fried Rice and I got Honey Chicken with White Rice.  We both got Spring Rolls.  All I can say is that I make better Chinese food and that the last time I checked I don't have any Chinese ancestry.  It was cheap, so I didn't squeal too much.
Today I've been finishing up photo projects and they went fairly quickly.
Supposed to hit 77º today, warm weather for mid-November.
Hope you're having a good weekend.